In recently released data by the Office of National Statistics, unemployment is running at nearly 10 per cent, down 35,000 on the quarter.

Their research shows that while there has been a quarterly fall in unemployment since the three months to May 2011, this is not yet a great change in the overall picture.

Meanwhile, youth unemployment ran at 22.2 per cent in the three months to February 2012, down from the three months to November 2011. Despite this, there are still more than a million unemployed 16- to 24-year-olds.

Many experts have expressed their concern about the lack of investment in skills upon business growth. Liz Field, CEO of Financial Skills Partnership says that a lack of investment could affect businesses competitiveness.

"If businesses stop in the attraction, retention and development of talent, their growth could be seriously hampered," she said.

"A major part of the solution is for companies to rethink the role which skills play in their businesses. It's time businesses stopped thinking about skills as merely a HR matter, and started to think of their talent as a powerful route to growth, profitability and competitiveness.

"It's important we learn the lessons from the last recession where companies starved their organisations of investment in talent and suffered severe consequences as a result.

"Many companies in our sector are taking skills seriously and are currently putting in place stable foundations which will empower them to continue to thrive and prosper in difficult market conditions."

With a renewed passion and enthusiasm for their company growth, business owners and those responsible for training need to invest in their staff to harness their potential for the good of their very own futures!